BuddyPress.org

Hello,

I’m trying to find any text within user posts/activity that begin with $ and have 3-4 uppercase letters in front of it. If one is found, it would be hyperlinked to a specified page on an external site.

// Regex
$search = '/\$[A-Z]{3,4}/';

// The Text you want to filter for urls
$text = 'Check out these stocks $AAPL and $DRYS';

for ($i = 0; $i < count(preg_match($search, $text)); $i++) {
    
    // check for word match
    if (preg_match($search, $text, $myLink)) {
        $path = "symbol";
        $tickerUrl = substr($myLink[0], 1);
        
       // create links
       echo preg_replace($search, '<a href="https://domain.com/'.$path. '/' .$tickerUrl.'">'.$myLink[0].'</a>', $text);
    
    } else {
       // if no links in the text just return the text
        echo $text;
    }
    
} // end for loop

<strong>RESULT:</strong> 
Both mentions are linked as $AAPL ( something wrong with my loop :) ).  Link works correctly though.  Not sure how to apply this function for all buddypress activity/posts/comments.
 
add_filter( " **NOT SURE** ", "ticker_handles" );  ??

Any guidance is much appreciated. Thanks!